A portion of smoked salmon contains more fat than a slice of pizza, an investigation has revealed.

Despite being considered a healthy product, farmed fish bought from supermarkets was found to contain up to twice as much fat per 100g than a margherita pizza.

In Sainsbury’s, for example, Scottish Oak Smoked Salmon from its Taste the Difference range had 14g of fat per 100g. The same proportion in a Pizza Express margherita pizza is 7.4g.

Scroll down for video

Sainsbury's Scottish oak smoked salmon, which costs £4.50 for 120g and is made from farmed fish, contains 14g of fat per 100g

Although higher in fat, salmon
contains healthy omega 3 fatty acids and monosaturated fat linked to
health benefits – rather than the more harmful saturated fat found in
pizza. However, experts yesterday said it was a nonsense to describe
farmed salmon as a ‘lean and healthy food’.

The product is particularly high in
fat because fish stocks have usually been reared in small confined areas
where they cannot swim freely and put on weight. Wild smoked salmon –
which have naturally swum hundreds of miles through migration to
spawning grounds – contain a third of the fat per 100g.

Don Staniford, director of the Global
Alliance Against Industrial Aquaculture, said the two types of smoked
salmon – wild and farmed – were virtually two different foods. ‘The
farmed salmon is a couch potato compared to the majestic and iconic wild
salmon,’ he told the Sunday Times. ‘It is complete nonsense to describe
this flabby farmed fish as lean and healthy.’

A classic Pizza Express margherita contains 7.4g of fat per 100g - under half that of the salmom

Tesco’s farmed Scottish smoked salmon
contains 9.9g of fat per 100g but its wild Alaskan sourced product is
two thirds lower at 3.3g. While it may contain more fat than pizza, the
farmed fish contains omega 3 fatty acids and monosaturated fat – which
has been shown to cut cholesterol, lower the risk of heart disease and
strokes, help weight loss and even prevent breast cancer.

They are also found in olive oil and vegetables and may partly explain why the Mediterranean diet has so many health benefits.

Smoked salmon graphic

Omega 3 fatty acids – present in all
oily fish – also protect against heart disease and strokes and may also
boost brain function and prevent cancer.

The saturated fat in pizza raises cholesterol and increases the risk of heart disease and strokes.

Sainsbury’s said it clearly labels
smoked salmon as either wild or farmed because they are treated as two
different kinds of fish, so ‘looking at the fat content between the two
is not comparing like for like’. Waitrose has apologised for describing
a £4.99 farmed salmon product created by TV chef Heston Blumenthal as
‘lean’ when it has 10.5g of fat per 100g.